A number of years ago, I had a conversation with a lady that had a lasting impact on me. She was not a member of this church, but was a lady I knew and was part of a family that I very much admired for their commitment to Christ. At times, I had even found myself envying the strong Christian fellowship this family had. Yet on this occasion, I was not meeting her to discuss the secret to the strong Christian fellowship her family portrayed. I was meeting with her because she had decided to leave her husband and pursue another man, and she had expressed her willingness to talk with me in the midst of this decision.
As we spoke, I remember telling her that she was hardening her heart to the point that repentance may well be impossible for her. I reminded her that she was exhibiting the kind of hardness toward the Lord’s commands that is shown in one who does not know Christ. I warned her that those who continue to walk in unrepentant sin should be very afraid of judgment. And I had hoped and prayed for a response of repentance and tears and clear longing for the Lord. But that was not the response. Instead of repentance, she talked about how she couldn’t imagine that abandoning her family was wrong, that she thought God wanted her to be happy, and that she was finally finding happiness in adultery, leaving her husband, and walking away from things she once held so dear.
And as that conversation ended and she got in her vehicle to drive away, I remember feeling my own weakness. By that I don’t mean my weakness of being unable to persuade her in holiness. The weakness I felt related to realizing much more clearly how fragile I am. After all, this lady was not someone who had walked an aisle as a child but had given no evidence since of actually knowing Christ. This was a lady whose walk with Christ was strong. Her diligence and discipline in pursuing Christ was more obvious than mine. I was not married at the time and had often thought that one day I wanted my family devotions to be like that of her family. Simply to consider her obvious walk with the Lord had been a source of encouragement to me to press on in the faith, even in difficult times. And, now she was leaving her family and telling me why she thought her adultery was okay. As I prayed for her, I couldn’t help but also pray, “God help me. Keep me from hardening my heart and running after sin to the point that I no longer am able to discern good from evil.” And I knew in that moment that I was not praying against something that was impossible, like praying that the Lord would keep you from levitating out of your chair. I was praying for myself because I knew that sin was all too appealing to me, that I was prone to thinking of a certain level of sin as acceptable, and that I was a weak man apart from the grace of Christ.
I think of that moment almost every time I come to a text like the one we find here in James 4:4-12. I think of it because there can be a temptation in preaching to not be too excited about preaching a text like this. It can feel much more thrilling to take up a text that allows you to get to explore and explain some difficult theological issue. It can seem much more enticing to get to recount a narrative that tells some amazing story like the redemption and transformation of Rahab. As you anticipate preaching, it can feel a bit deflating to stare at a text that hammers us in our sin. Yet, I quickly remind myself that this text is an answer to my prayer on that day that God would not let me grow dull in my ability to discern good from evil. This text is an answer to my request that God would not let me grow hardened to sin. This text is an answer to our prayers for one another that we would not grow dull in our ability to see sin as it is and would be sensitive to sin. It is texts like this that God has given us so that we might be shaken out of our dullness, so that the ever hardening callous on our hearts might be ripped away, and so that we might hate and fight sin as we are called to do. Therefore, I want us to approach this text this morning with thankfulness that our God is not letting us go. Hear in this text our Lord saying, “I will not give you over to sin.” And let’s pray that the Lord would allow this text to have a weighty and lasting effect in our hearts as we consider God’s commands, repentance, and the truly wicked nature of sin.
We first have a reminder in this text that …
As James writes this letter, it is clear that he knows of sin among those to whom he is writing. It is no doubt intentional that he has focused on showing partiality to the rich, sinning with our tongues, claiming to have faith without works, and demonstrating worldly and demonic instead of godly wisdom. He is like a careful surgeon, taking his scalpel and cutting at each area that needs to be addressed. But James hasn’t been as pointed as we might expect. We can no longer say that after verses 4-5. James writes, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.’?”
James has been rebuking the notion that we can be double-minded in our commitment to the Lord throughout the book. In the opening verses, he told them to pray for wisdom, which God would gladly give them. But he also warned them not to ask as one who was doubtful in his commitment. That is, he warned against asking God for wisdom when you’re not sure you want to obey. Similarly, in the verses we looked at two weeks ago, we saw James’ explanation for why they were asking God for blessing and not getting it. It’s because they were not undividedly committed to God. Rather, they were still wanting to use God’s blessing for selfish gain.
Why has James, then, made such a big deal of this that you cannot be divided in your commitment to obey the Lord? He tells us that it is because to be a friend of the world is to make oneself an enemy of God. You see, to follow God and to follow the standards of the world are against one another. The world tells us that the greatest are those find means to be exalted and who have servants under them. God tells us that the one who wants to be great should be the servant of all. The world tells us that happiness lies in trying to gain for oneself, even if it means hurt for others. It says, “Just ask what would make you happy,” without regard for caring for others. God tells us that we must love our neighbors as ourselves, and even care for those such as widows and orphans who do not have anything of worldly value to offer us. In fact, helping them may cost us much in this world. And we could go on and on.
But suffice it to say that the value system of the world is not neutral but is in opposition to God. Every discipline taught in the university that does not begin by recognizing that the basis for knowledge is what God has revealed to us in his Word is not doing some neutral kind of search for knowledge; they are acting in rebellion to God’s clear authority and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. The world is not neutral to God but in rebellion against him. Even their inability to recognize God’s majesty in creation is due to the weakness of their minds but the rebellion of their hearts.
It should, therefore, not be surprising to us that a world full of people in active rebellion before God are exalting values and ways of thinking, acting, and living that are in opposition to the commands of God. Therefore, James tells us, you cannot pursue both the ways of the world and the ways of God. If you want to follow the world, then you make yourself an enemy of God. God simply will not allow us to have two masters.
That’s why James reminds us of God’s jealousy, as he writes, “He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us?” (v. 5). It seems here that James is not quoting a specific biblical text as much as a truth represented over and over again in the biblical text, namely, that God is jealous for our devotion. God is not like a husband who gives no regard over whether or not his wife is faithful to him. He is like a husband cares for his wife, loves her, and runs after her should she try to give herself to another. The consistent way God pictures the sin of his people is in terms of adultery. He tells Israel again and again that by their sins they have played the whore. It is like they have a loving husband who cares for them and yet is out at the end of the driveway throwing herself as any man who comes along.
That’s what sin is for the believer! We cannot grow tolerant of sin in our life as if it’s something acceptable and okay any more than we would think it okay just to have a little cancer. Just as we would attack cancer with powerful poisons to kill it, so we must see sin as an unacceptable enemy on which we must make an attack. And we can also know that if we do not, our jealous God will discipline us, for he will not let us go.
So, let us first ask ourselves this morning if we see sin like cancer, like adultery, and as something that can have no place in our lives. Or, have we kind of given up on the fight and concluded that it is acceptable. James reminds us that God will not allow his people to walk in such adultery.
We might, then, find ourselves fearful acknowledging our sin before God. After all, we might think, “What will he do in light of what I’ve been doing?” If we humble ourselves and confess our wrongs, is he going to really let us have it? James answers in verse 6, telling us that God gives grace to those who humble themselves before him.
James writes, “But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (v.6). You do not need to fear confessing your sins to God this morning. He delights in showing grace to the humble. God pictures himself in the Scripture as the father to the prodigal son, running after him. He pictures himself through Hosea the prophet as a husband who buys back his wife who has sold herself to another in adultery. He pictures himself as one who knows his wife’s adultery and yet says, “Return … for I am merciful” (Jer. 3:12). Do not be afraid of confessing your sin, for he is eager to shower upon you mercy and grace.
However, if you refuse to repent, you should be very afraid. Because just as God is committed to give grace to the one who humbles himself, so he is committed to oppose the one who is proud. If today, you refuse to repent of your sin, because God is a jealous God, he will set himself against you, and you do not want that. So, let us keep in mind as we consider our sin that God will not allow the possibility of us walking in our sin in peace. We repent and grace and mercy, or we hold to our sin and God sets himself in opposition to us. Therefore, our response should be clear. James tells us in verses 7-10 that we must turn from our sin, humble ourselves, and submit to God.
James writes, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (vv. 7-10).
Again, James shows us that we can’t have it both ways. Resist the devil and turn to God. Abandon your pursuit of sin and pursue God. And as you draw near to God, he will draw near to you. He will meet you with grace and mercy. But you must see your sin as it is and be repelled by it.
I mentioned earlier that we should think of sin like cancer. I thought to myself this week, what would be my response if I found out that one of my children was diagnosed with cancer. What painful news that would be. I cannot imagine the tears I would shed and the pleas that I would offer to God for his or her healing. And I want to paint for you two scenes in that scenario. First, imagine a couple whose 7-year-old son is diagnosed with cancer, and when they hear the diagnosis you find them laughing and smiling and dancing and singing. What would you think? No doubt, you’d think that they must not have understood correctly. Cancer will kill their son unless it is eliminated. And if by chance they did understand correctly, you would no doubt want to yell at them, “What is wrong with you? You evil people!”
Is there any wonder, then, why James writes, “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom” (v. 9)? Sin should be even more of an enemy to us than cancer, for cancer is only a threat to our bodies.
On the other hand, can you imagine one of your children getting a diagnosis of cancer, praying, and the Lord miraculously healing him? I can’t imagine the rejoicing we would express. Well, that same kind of rejoicing we should have at the thought that we can turn from our sin, draw near to God, and instead of pushing us away, he will draw near to us.
Therefore, I want to encourage us to repent and taste afresh the joy of forgiveness that is ours in Christ. James says, humble yourselves before God, and he will exalt you. Why would we, then, not repent of our sin this morning?
Finally, though, our text ends by making sure that we do not turn from our sin lightly. That is, not that we might question whether or not we should turn from sin. Of course we should. But let’s not turn from our sin and quickly forget the nature of it. James encourages us in verses 11-12 to consider well the nature of our sin.
Our text ends with a clear reminder of what sin is like. James takes one specific sin as a closing illustration for this section – the sin of speaking evil against our brother. He writes, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” (vv. 11-12).
Now, before looking at what James says in these final two verses, I want to make something clear. By condemning judging our neighbor or asking, “Who are you to judge your neighbor?” James is not condemning addressing sin in one another. In fact, Paul condemns the Corinthians for not judging a professing brother in sin. And, James writes this entire section condemning their actions, right? I mean, the text begins, “You adulterous people!” James cannot be condemning the fact that we address sin in a brother’s life. What James condemns here, it seems, is a judgment that is either unnecessary or simply to harm.
That is, for example, Paul forbids us in the end of Romans for judging a brother who does or does not observe the Sabbath. That is, he points to an area where there is freedom and tells us not to judge, for each of us will deal with the Lord ourselves. This would be like the decisions we make about the education of our children or what cars we buy or a number of other things. Don’t be a judgmental person toward others concerning things where the Scripture gives freedom. That could be one thing James is condemning here.
More likely, however, James is simply rebuking a judgment that seeks to harm or destroy our brothers. Perhaps this is the kind of judgment seen when we wrongly judge another’s motives, or speak judgment on them with an attitude that assumes the worst or even hopes for the worst. This is the opposite of obeying God’s command that we love our neighbors as ourselves.
Well, James says that when you decide you will do such thing and disobey God’s laws, you’re actually putting yourself in judgment over the law. You see, when we decide to disobey God’s laws, we’re actually claiming that we know better than God, that we are wiser than him. So, for example, God says do this or that, and I decide that I will not do that because I believe it is better to do something else. Not only is my act one of disobedience, but it reveals an arrogance in my heart that says, “I know better than God. I will judge his commands and see if it is best.”
But James reminds us that there is only one lawgiver and judge, and he is able to save and destroy. So, let us fear growing comfortable in our sin, not realizing how arrogant we are becoming when we refuse to obey the commands of the one who created us and has redeemed us.
I continue to pray for myself and for you all that God might keep our hearts from growing hardened to sin and unable to discern good from evil. I pray that none of us in this room will ever serve as an example of the hardening effects of walking in unrepentant sin. One means God uses to keep our hearts tender and our discernment sharp is a text like this that reminds us of the seriousness of sin and the grace we can find if we humble ourselves in repentance, that calls us to repentance, and that opens our eyes afresh to the arrogance and danger of our disobedience. May we hear this text today, mourn over our sin, and rejoice together that we get to repent and know the grace of our God who exalts those who humble themselves. Amen.